Exploring Antarctica's Phantom Coast
in the ice until the edge broke away as a berg.
Since Antarctica's basic geography is that of
a broad hump, glaciers move outward from
the South Polar region -an ice plateau 10,000
feet high - toward the lower coasts. The slow
pace of the glaciers makes it probable that
the stones were picked up many hundreds of
years ago, perhaps even before the birth of
Christ.
Fathometers Find Undersea Peaks
Drake pronounced the samples I brought
back metamorphosed sedimentary rock, quite
different from rocks we had collected along
this coast in 1960. So the black berg had drift
ed from some unknown shore.
Late that afternoon our ships broke into
ice-free waters adjacent to the coast. We were
approaching the Thurston Peninsula in won
derfully calm seas. Our fathometers clicked
out a profile of the bottom, showing many
underwater pinnacles.
Our orders read that on sighting the pen
insula we were to turn west and penetrate
the Amundsen Sea. But that could wait. To
the east, into the Bellingshausen Sea, there
opened an inviting expanse of water. A quick
trip there, we reasoned, would allow us to
retrieve a "grasshopper" automatic weather
station we had planted ashore the previous.
year. It had sent out weather data for two
months before its batteries died. (In the ex
plorations going forward as this article is
published, we are taking an atom-powered
grasshopper that is capable of broadcasting
for ten years.)
Helicopter scouts for ice leads opened by changing winds in the frozen Bellingshausen Sea
KODACHROMEBY W. D. VAUGHN () NATIONALGEOGRAPHICSOCIETY
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